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Winter is here in the Midwest. A breezy, 20-mph wind cuts through everything. The roads have an icy sheen. My breath is eviscerated as I walk out the door. I choke. My commute — a brisk jog — is bone-chilling. With my backpack rustling back and forth, I gingerly move from foot to foot. Frankly, despite the cold and madness of running in work clothes, I’m going to miss these days. I’m going to miss the toughness of this work and school routine.

I can feel my time in Iowa City is winding down. Over the next year and a half, I’ll move on to my internship (similar to a medical doctor’s residency). That internship will be in a new location — new peers, new streets, new names, and… new weather. As one chapter closes, another opens, right?

The decisions I make today will greatly affect where I end up — physically, emotionally, and financially. The next couple years include challenging financial concerns and I want to openly process them with you. There are three domains of my life that I’d like to consider: possibly buying a car, planning for travel/lodging costs associated with internships, and potentially moving three times in three years.

To buy, or not to buy… a car

One and a half years ago, I said sayonara to a hefty car loan and excess liability. The 2006 Honda Civic coupe was cool, efficient, and reliable. But paying off an $11,000 car loan with little money leftover to save or afford repairs felt dangerous. So, I sold it.

Since then, I’ve used my bike and feet to travel nearly everywhere. While I didn’t need to lose weight, the decision has kept me svelte and fit. When all you have is your physical health to get around, you tend to take better care of yourself. Simply put, I’ve enjoyed being car-less — it’s freeing.

I don’t lavish browsing Craigslist and other used car websites, but I’m increasingly sneaking peeks. In the next couple semesters and moves, a car could help me immensely. I’ll use it to go grocery shopping, visit my girlfriend, and potentially move into a more affordable housing complex. Without a car, these tasks become exceedingly difficult.

Now more than ever, I’m conscious I might be trying rationalize buying a car. That can be financially disastrous. Thankfully, I’m engaged in a careful consideration — unlike my first car purchase, which includes:

Talking openly with family and friends

Browsing used car sites patiently

Scoping out values, which will hold resale and reliability

Considering two price points: dirt cheap and car loan levels

Reviewing how I could potentially get by without a car

I’m motivated to try and buy a car in cash, but heavily limited by my bank account, the stock market’s recent decline, and the two following tasks: internship applications and two apartment moves in the interim.

When I look at my bank accounts, I’m seeing a tiny number: $3487.93. While I’m happy and privileged to have a positive number between my checking and savings accounts, I’m concerned. I make little net income each month as a graduate student. Buying a car would drain nearly all of my liquidity. It’s forcing me to be careful — along with the reminder that I hate debt. I desperately want to stay positive in my net worth. If you’ve got some special advice about car buying or an offer I can’t refuse, hit me up!

Let’s talk about your future, young man

My time in Iowa City always had an expiration date. Graduate school is a relatively fixed duration of 5 years here and then a year-long internship — 6 years total. Afterwards, it’s time to finish up the requirements and look for professional opportunities. And this final transition can be painfully expensive.

Worse, I might have to take out a car loan to afford the internship experiences or a student loan to afford everything else. Those are both worst case scenarios for my financial present and future. I loath loans and cannot envision them being part of a healthy budget right now. These aren’t home mortgages; rather, complicated instruments that encourage spending, manipulate critical thinking, and have led me into deeper holes.

One thing I can do is redirect some poorly performing investments into internship savings, follow a close food budget for the next year and a half, and pour every extra penny into internship savings. With this drastic action, I might be able to buy a car in cash right now, while continuing to save for this decision. This version is an ideal, though. I’ve learned that financial decisions are often controlled by unexpected and unpredicted events, but I can try.

Moving out, moving on

After four years of easy living in graduate student housing at the University of Iowa, I’m dealing with one of the sadder moments of my time here: being forced to move. Financially, the current apartments I live in have become financially burdensome. When I moved to Iowa City, rent was a competitive, amazing $435 per month for a one-bedroom apartment. Compared to the greater community, rent was dirt cheap and offered month-to-month leases.

Two years after I moved here, a private company built new buildings and prices skyrocketed. Next fall, rents will be $999 for a one-bedroom apartment. That’s $564 in rent increases. I can’t afford this place anymore. It went from graduate housing to luxury living for staffers and University of Iowa faculty making far more than fixed-income students. While complicated, it’s a symptom of the privatization of public resources and universities.

Despite the previous increases, I’ve stayed for consistency and friends. Now, it’s time to move out and on. I’m looking further out from the city center. Prices would be lower and I’d be closer to grocery stores. With my final year in Iowa right around the corner, this is an inevitable and financially necessary decision.

Although, despite savings in rent prices each month, I’ll need to afford moving costs and rental deposits. Even in an effort to save money, I’ll need to spend some. Oh, the irony! And the situation becomes even more challenging: over the next three years, I’ll need to move three times. Moving costs and new rental deposits will be a theme for my life temporarily.

In short, money is tight. Three domains necessitate savings, planning, and careful consideration. Purchasing a car, financing internship applications, and moving will drain my savings, but I’m dedicated to avoiding debt and making smarter financial decisions. Previously, I would’ve made rash judgments and rationalized them as “completely necessary.” I would’ve said “I need to buy this [insert expensive item here].” Today, my financial state of the union is better than ever, but precarious. I have to be careful and decisive — rational and reasonable.

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Graduate students are a vulnerable population

This has been the craziest two weeks of graduate school and it all started with a blog post I wrote on Sunday, November 29. It was entitled, “How Leases Trap College Students.” Therein, I talked about my graduate student housing on the University of Iowa campus. When I first arrived, it was $435. But then, a private company, Balfour Beatty, came in and demolished the subsidized housing. They built a lavish, $31 million complex.

Since then, the prices have skyrocketed about 130% since the university – a public institution – sold off the rights to build and manage a property to a private company, Balfour Beatty. Next year’s 1-bedroom leases are now going for $999. You can get better prices in New York City. The company has published all sorts of reasons and information for the prices and increases, but they never talk about the big difference: profit motive. Now, graduate students cannot afford graduate student housing.

How do graduate students contribute on campus?

Graduate students often teach, research, and assist universities. For example, I teach two undergraduate courses, conduct research, provide technical assistance, and work on special projects with faculty in my college. These efforts – for 20 hours per week – allow me to receive a tuition scholarship and stipend. After taxes, that stipend equals about $18,720.

Despite the need for graduate students and an economic engine for doctoral graduates, housing them doesn’t tend to be a moneymaker. With only $18,720 per year, they’re limited as to where they can live without taking federal aid (student loans). Most schools have used affordable graduate housing as a benefit for incoming students. Like any incentive package at work, low-cost housing attracts the talented, financially sensible, and respects the dignity of those who contribute to the milieu.

How much money can you make from grad students?

While the University of Iowa certainly has a drive for income, profiting off of graduate students isn’t the purpose. When they managed their own properties, they made enough to maintain the property. With this private company on campus, the paradigm has shifted. The profit motive was back with a vengeance.

This move towards privatization on college campuses is little highlighted or understood. Frankly, I don’t know anyone who’s talking about it – or knows about it. But the reality is that more and more public institutions are deciding to parcel out their public resources – taxpayer funded – to an elite group of market barons.

Today, I wanted to take an opportunity to break down this problem and explain how students are financially affected by privatization using Balfour Beatty. Over the next decades, if universities continue to embrace privatization, students will be holding record levels of debt. For graduate students, it all starts with their rent/housing.

Lease public resources, make it someone else’s problem profit

Unfortunately for universities, graduate student housing isn’t a moneymaker. They are hard to maintain, keep risk on the table, and place debt liability in the hands of administrators. On campuses nationwide, universities are beginning to “lease” their land to private companies, as they cannot sell public resources. These leases can be signed for decades and lead to magnificent profits for companies involved.

When a private company comes in to build new residences, building, etc. on public universities, the two organizations are signing what’s called a public-private partnership. I’m getting sort of wonky today, so bear with me. A public-private partnership is when a “private party provides a public service or project and assumes substantial financial, technical and operational risk in the project.”

Effectively, public universities who embrace this model are offsetting their risk onto a private partner. They can suddenly fire handfuls of expensive employees who provide public services. These employees ordinarily require pensions and other retirement benefits, quality healthcare, and reasonable paychecks. The replacement is simple: smaller staffs, fewer benefits, and pay cuts. It’s all for one goal: maximize profits for a select few and pillage the fixed-income graduate students.

Administrators love public-private partnerships!

Many administrators say that graduate student housing isn’t a core mission, but undergraduate housing is a core mission because universities make boatloads of profits off undergrads. Here’s a University of Iowa administrator excitedly explaining how university-managed residence halls make sense (but not graduate student housing?):

“Stange said the Petersen Residence Hall, a $53 million, 10-story building under construction and scheduled to open in time for the fall 2015 semester, will house about 500 first- and second-year undergraduates.” (source)

Despite 90% occupancy rates and a population in need (many of which were people of color, international students, young families, and people with disabilities) in old, university-controlled graduate student housing, administrators decide to spin the story:

“Hawkeye Court is at the end of its useful life,” Stange said. “They were well-maintained as best as they could. They just were not meeting needs of our current population.” (source)

Worsening the problem is the added classism and gentrification risk to these privately constructed and managed apartments. Poor people need not apply:

These buildings are intended to create “an exclusive community designed to meet the lifestyle needs of today’s student.” (source)

Calling attention to the pillaging of graduate students

For a 1-bedroom at the “exclusive” Aspire at West Campus at the University of Iowa — remember, intended for graduate students — you’ll spend $1,000 per month. Over the course of a 5-year Ph.D. (some take longer), you’d be spending around $60,000 on rent along — if prices stayed consistent. Again, that’s a generously low total.

With my graduate student stipend of $18,720 per year, I’d be spending 64% of my income on rent alone. That’s why I’ve decided to move out for the coming year. But the gentrification and heartbreak to those looking for affordable housing has been finished. The University of Iowa signed a bad deal with no deal to renegotiate. Heck, administrators didn’t even know how much the private company would charge for rent!

Now, graduate students are stuck with bill or forced to get out. That’s just not right. The university messed up.

Spreading alarm and stirring up media attention

Four days ago, when a group of us affected students began emailing and contacting administrators to tell them they have a major problem on their hands, they told us to go away. They told us it wasn’t the university’s problem; in fact, we needed to bring our concerns to the private company, Balfour Beatty. Here’s what one administrator said:

“I can sit down with [the students], but the strongest voice will come from the people who will or won’t rent from [Balfour Beatty] based on rates.”

What that administrator seems to be implying is that he would sit down with us, but we might as well talk to the company. Picture that: a bunch of students marching into a multinational company trying to negotiate. That’s ridiculous.

Well, we weren’t particularly happy with that answer. So, we kept writing statements to politicians, lawyers, administrators, the president’s office, media outlets. In three days, we had three front page stories in three separate newspapers.

Suddenly, the University of Iowa administration had a PR disaster on their hands. And magically, that tone of changed among admin/staff at the highest echelons of the university. Now, the president wanted to meet with us because he cared about this issue. My how they reversed their tone rapidly!

But taking it from PR nightmare to significant change is a different story. While the administration debates their next actions, this story has massive implications.

When prices skyrocket, that means students with disabilities must bear the costs. When young families with children feel the cost, they must move further from campus. When international students trust the university’s marketing of this on-campus housing, they find an awful price and unmanageable lease.

Balfour Beatty has a reputation for profit over people

The company’s buildings have gone viral — trumpeting their privately constructed and managed properties across the country. Just look at where they’ve gone beyond Iowa:

University of Houston-Victoria

University of Nevada-Reno

Georgia State

Temple University

George Mason University

Texas A&M

UNC-Charlotte

University of Sussex

Tarleton State University

San Diego State University

Florida Atlantic University

Winston-Salem State University

Appalachian State University

University of South Florida-Tampa

Cornish College of the Arts

University of California Riverside

George Mason University

University of Texas-Dallas

Every place they go, an area is gentrified, low-income students are forced out and a community is transformed. When the profit motive takes over non-profit campuses, the results can be harrowing. In fact, students at the University of Nevada, Reno tried to rebel against Balfour Beatty once before, but the company wasn’t willing to renegotiate. The solutions are murky once a contract is signed, too. Only one thing can be done: universities must resist the drive to privatize public resources and everyone should know that market barons like Balfour Beatty don’t represent students’ interests — they represent their own.